ONE MORE UNFORTUNATE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VIII, Issue 412, 16 June 1898, Page 9

ONE MORE UNFORTUNATE.

No one can say that the rendezvous of sporting men, as a general rule, is dull. There is always something to liven it up, rumours, perhaps, of a horse broken down, or a good trial, or it may be a practical. joke, generally keep things merry, but the sporting life is not always what it is painted to be. A new sensation was supplied this week when it became known that one familiar figure would be absent from Tattersail’s, and when thia news became known on the eve of settling day it was curious to note its varied effect—just, of course, as it influenced the pockets of the persons concerned, and there were not a few who are affected more or less by the sudden departure of the levanting metallician. Perhaps the only self satisfied people who heard the news were the unctuous individuals who form the rank and file of the anti-gambling crusaders, but the honorable portion of the betting ring, particularly that which belongs to respectable organiza tions like Tattersall’s, have a right to be credited with the fact that levantera or repudiators of debts of honor are not, com par tively speaking, so great among bookmakers as L-vanters from legal obligations in other lines of life. In that respect the leaders of social purity societies and societies of a kindred nature have hitherto taken a prominent hand. In this case, however, it is a metallician who is a defaulter, and to a considerable tune, too. Probably over £lOOO would not cover the levanter’s liabilities, and it is evident that his affairs must have drifted into such a bad con dition that lie found it impossible to meet his liabilities and determined to leave by the Alameda, which, conveniently for him, was timed to start on Saturday. Those who saw him on the boat at the wharf never suspected that he was leaving, but he was, and the detectives saw him still on board when they left the Alameda at the North Head. Exit “ Crookie.”